Map of the Internet 2013

Posted on March 21, 2013

When it came time to create a followup to our Map of the Internet poster, PEER 1 Hosting and myself were in agreement that we wanted to create an interactive experience. To create the most intimate and tactile connection, we decided to go with a mobile app. To that end, we brought the app experts at Steamclock Software on board to help us craft the best possible experience.

Starting with the same centrality-based layout of autonomous systems that our poster was based on, we brought it into three dimensions, which can be navigated with intuitive multitouch controls. A you-are-here button shows you your present location on the internet; selecting any other node gives you information about it, and allows you to perform a traceroute to it.

A second visualization mode brings geographic location into play, showing the distribution of autonomous systems across the globe.

A timeline mode allows the user to scrub from 1994 to 2020. The data for the years 2000 to the present comes from CAIDA, the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis. The years before and after that are based on simulated data, extrapolated in each direction.